Aviation News

Jetstar

Jetstar refused to allow a disabled two-year-old’s stroller to be taken on a flight, despite finding room for another passenger’s musical instrument.

Trudi Scott, her husband and their children, Isaac, 9, and Theo, 2, were booked on a late-night flight from Wellington to Auckland last Friday for a family trip to see the Walking With Dinosaurs production.

Theo has Down syndrome and suffers from a rare condition, non-neurogenic neurogenic bladder, which can lead to renal failure.

Mrs Scott said they were told at the gate that the new stroller, which weighs eight kilograms and folds down to the size of a large umbrella, would have to go in the hold – despite their explaining it was for their disabled son.

They were told it would be waiting for them at the gate when they got off the flight in Auckland.

But once seated on the plane, the family were appalled when a crew member walked past carrying a large green bag that was placed under one of the back seats.

When the head flight attendant was questioned about the bag, it turned out to be a musical instrument for another passenger.

Things got worse for the Scotts when they arrived in Auckland to discover their stroller had been damaged in transit.

They were again stopped from taking the stroller on board during the return flight, despite the cabin being half-full.

Mrs Scott said staff had treated them terribly and seemed to have no sympathy.

“It’s almost like you’re having to justify your son’s disability to them,” she said.

“Their staff need to go on customer service training, because they’re arrogant and very, very rude.”

A spokeswoman for Jetstar, which has faced criticism of its customer service in the past, said the airline sincerely apologised to the Scott family for the inconvenience and had sent them four $NZ50 vouchers. It would also cover the cost to repair or replace the stroller.

The airline had a blanket policy on its A320 aircraft not to allow strollers in the cabin because of the number of people who arrived with them. Musical instruments could be accommodated in advance and strapped to an extra seat if it was bought by a passenger, but she could not say if this was the case on the Scotts’ flight.

An Air New Zealand spokesman said crew members used their discretion when accommodating strollers on flights, depending on available space.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au

Southwest Airlines

Audio recordings of communications between the pilot of a Southwest Airlines jet that ripped open in mid-air and air traffic controllers reveal the tense moments as the plane made a fast descent above Arizona.

A 5-foot hole tore open in the roof of the Boeing 737 as Flight 812 climbed to 34,000 feet on April 1. Recordings and transcripts released by the Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday show the pilot quickly radioed to report a problem.

“Declaring an emergency descent, declaring an emergency. We lost the cabin,” the pilot says.

The pilot asked the controllers for permission to drop to 10,000 feet after the hole caused rapid decompression in the passenger cabin.

One of the controllers can be heard relaying the pilot’s request to descend to another controller. When the second controller hesitated, the first replied, “He’s doing it anyway.” 

Onboard, 118 passengers grabbed their oxygen masks as the pilots pushed the plane down more than 20,000 feet in less than five minutes.

“We’ll, uh, turn to Phoenix and, um, we’ve got apparently we’ve got a hole in the fuselage in the back of the airplane,” the pilot says.

While the pilot made the harrowing descent, air traffic controllers scrambled to make sure there were no other planes in the path of the damaged jetliner.

The pilot changed his mind about landing in Phoenix and decided he needed to get the plane on the ground as soon as possible. 

Pilot: “We need the nearest airport.”

Controller: “Southwest 812, are you able to land at Blythe or would you want to go to Palm Springs?”

Pilot: “Let’s make a turn and go to uh, how far away is Yuma away from us right now?”

Controller: “Yuma is in your three o’clock position. And 50 miles.”

Pilot: “We’ll take Yuma.”

The pilot guided the plane to a safe emergency landing, and there were no serious injuries.

Metal fatigue was initially suspected to have caused tiny subsurface cracks in the aluminum skin, which gave way during flight. But investigators later said the seeds of the near-disaster might have been planted when the plane was built.

Preliminary findings issued in April suggesting there may have been flaws in the riveting work when Boeing built the plane 15 years ago.

The National Transportation Safety Board said some of the rivets used to bind the Boeing 737′s aluminum panels together were sunk in holes larger than the rivet shafts. The holes weren’t lined up correctly and were misshapen, not round, the board said.

After the Southwest incident, Boeing told airlines that own about 190 other 737s built in the 1990s to immediately conduct electromagnetic inspections of an area of the roof called the lap joint, where overlapping panels of skin are riveted together.

The Board has not yet issued a final report about the incident.

Source: http://www.komonews.com

 

India will order 1,320 aircraft, worth $150 billion, over the next two decades, American aircraft manufacturer Boeing has said in its latest market outlook. Globally, Boeing forecasts a market for 33,500 new passenger airplanes and freighters over the next 20 years, worth $4 trillion, of which India’s share will increase to 3.75% from less than 1% five years ago.

“Robust economic growth, rising disposable incomes and growing airport infrastructure will stimulate demand for a variety of aircraft for short and long-haul distances,” Boeing India President Dinesh A Keskar said. India had 53.6 million domestic passengers and 13.1 million international passengers during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011. As the Indian market is growing at the rate of 15% annually, about 42 aircraft should be delivered to the country per year to keep pace with the demand, Keskar said. 

According to the company, 81% of these 1,320 jets will be single-aisle aircraft like B-737s (used by lowcost carriers) and 16% twin-aisles like the B-777s, B-787s and A-350s. Growth will come mainly from the low-cost carrier or LCC segment. Two out of every three Indians are opting to fly with these carriers, Boeing’s forecast said. The observation holds significance especially in the backdrop of carriers such as IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir having placed big aircraft orders over the past few months.

At the Paris air show last month, Asian budget airlines placed record orders worth $42 billion, of which, Indian airlines walked away with a $23-billion gamble as IndiGo finalised an order for 180 and GoAir placed an order for 72 Airbus jets. Meanwhile, SpiceJet too had ordered 30 B-737s worth $2.7 billion last November. According to Boeing, the Indian aviation market is looking for a mid-market product for international flights with 250-300 seats and the B-787 or the Dreamliner will fill that gap.

As Indian carriers enhance connectivity to foreign destinations and increase frequency, a bigger aircraft is not needed, Keskar said, adding that this aircraft is essential for the national carrier’s turnaround. “Not only is the aircraft 20% fuel efficient, but it has low maintenance and operating costs,” Keskar said. “By virtue of getting this sought after product first, Air India will clearly have an advantage.”

After Air India gets its first Dreamliner in the fourth quarter of this year, the delivery of the rest 26 will be staggered over the next 3-4 years, by which time even Jet Airways will start getting its B-787s. When asked how will Air India, neck-deep in debt, pay for the Dreamliners, Keskar said that this aircraft brings in cash flow, which is why they are not too worried about payments.

source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

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TIGER Airways is selling tickets in the hope the ban grounding it from Australian routes is lifted this weekend has brought a warning from the consumer watchdog.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Graeme Samuel said selling a ticket without mentioning the uncertainty about whether the service could be provided ”would be potentially misleading by omission”.

Mr Samuel said it was not illegal to sell tickets for flights that may never take off but the company was responsible for ensuring customers understood there was some question about future flights.

”The onus would be on the company to say ‘you need to be aware that there is a possibility that we will not be able to fly you in accordance with the schedule’. It’s no use relying on the small print to say that.”

A spokeswoman for the airline, Vanessa Regan, said last night its Facebook page had been updated with a message that ”all affected passengers of the Tiger Airways Australia domestic suspension will be automatically refunded back to the original form of payment”.

Ms Regan acknowledged it was difficult to get through to the company on the telephone but urged people to use the ”online customer service portal” on the website.

She said the airline expected to be flying on Saturday after the grounding expired.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority said no decision was likely until later in the week and would not speculate on whether the grounding would extend beyond Friday. ”We certainly apologise profusely to people who do want to travel with Tiger but we’ve got a responsibility to safety, which means we’ve got to work through this diligently and carefully,” CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said.

Tiger’s management was locked in crisis talks yesterday with CASA in Melbourne, in the first of what is expected to be a series of meetings this week over the airline’s future.

Tiger chief executive Tony Davis flew from Singapore, and took his local chief executive, Crawford Rix and its chief pilot Derek Fox to plead for the no-frills airline’s future before senior officials from CASA.

”Tiger Airways’ management team is today commencing an extensive series of meetings with the industry safety regulator and will continue to work on a constructive basis with CASA to resolve their safety concerns,” the airline said last night. ”Our goal is to resume our services as quickly as possible whilst restoring the confidence of both CASA and the Australian public at large that safety underpins our operations at all times.” Mr Gibson said officials were seeking explanations for two low-flying incidents, as well as ”systemic issues” including pilot training and checking.

But the collateral damage in CASA’s decision to ground the airline extends to all Tiger Airways Australia’s pilots, who are stood down on part pay.

About 100 pilots are receiving about 60 to 70 per cent of their normal pay, representing their base salary, and are not being paid a top-up sum for flying hours while the planes remain on the tarmac.

The two pilots at the centre of Thursday night’s low-flying incident into Avalon Airport, which triggered CASA’s grounding decision, were feeling the weight of the consequences, according to the union that represents most Tiger pilots, the Australian Federation of Air Pilots.